Things That Go Bump in the Night

Anyone who ever visited me in Palmdale knows that my husband can snore with cartoon-proportions! (Insert a pic of Donald Duck snoring and the curtains are alternately being sucked down on his face and rapidly propelled away accompanied by a decibel level to shake the foundation!) But all of that ended when he finally started using his CPAP machine just before we moved to Utah! Yay, we could finally share the same bedroom again!

But that doesn't mean that sleeping in the same room with him is always a peaceful experience. Now his CPAP machine will occasionally blow loud raspberries that wake me up. But not to worry! I always keep Mack's Earplugs handy. (their advertising proclaims: Mack's Earplugs saved my marriage!... and I wasn't the one who submitted it either!)

Last night was one of those raspberry nights so I yoinked my earplug off of my nightstand and went to sleep. I frequently take it out later in the night... but I couldn't believe where I found it this morning when I made the bed!



I ask you... WHAT ARE THE CHANCES?

Oh, Grow Up!

I don't want to and you can't make me! So nyah!

Well, that wouldn't be any fun! I love the saying, "I may be getting older, but I will never grow up!"

Ever since Namma got Ashton mismatched socks I've wanted some. To show you how desperate I was I even bought self-striping yarn, needles and a free pattern (hmm, how does one buy a free pattern?) all for the reasonable price of $20 (what was I thinking? I've since returned it all to Hobby Lobby!) and was going to make myself a pair of fun socks, which would have matched...

Tuesday I had Grammie duty at Lewis Zoo which just happens to be close to Target. So when I was finished with my duty I decided to go wander aimlessly at Target (one of my favorite activities!).  I came upon a whole display of the coolest socks ever. So, thinks me, I can make my own pairs of mismatched socks! Yay, little Joanie!



So I bought several pair of MATCHED socks (silly Target, that's the only way they sell them! for $2 a pair) and brought them home to mix and match as I desire... and you know if someone tells me my socks don't match I can just tell them-

"That's ok! I have another pair at home just like them!" bwahahahahaha



PS I've decided this is the winter version of cute toe-sies!

Sunshine

I've mentioned that in years past I've suffered with SAD. Last year I tried an experiment of daily (or as often as possible) basking. I felt a noticeable difference. This year has been even better, for a couple of reasons...

First, Gordon and I have gotten out of the house A LOT! For the better part of 3 months we were going to physical therapy, for arthritis (I can't like those -itis boys!!), so we were out in the car driving in the sunshine at least 3 days a week.

Second, emmm, I forgot! but maybe it had something to do with being active in addition to being out in the sun.



So anyway, I will share some of the sunshine from my life, coming right in through my kitchen window (where a new Bosch lives... I'm just bosching everything around in my kitchen... bwahahahahahaha)

Mom, You Really Are The Little Red Hen!

I mentioned earlier that Gordon got me a new Bosch mixer. I love it! I realize I didn't NEED it, but it is wonderful.

Since yesterday was Grammie-dinner AKA 3rd Sunday family dinner I decided that I wanted to make some wonderful whole wheat rolls. So after church I ventured into the dungeon to get a can of wheat... from 1978 (oh yeah, that's what I'm talkin' about)! I had to really dig to find my Magic Mill II which was lurking in the back corner of my pantry; poor thing hasn't seen the light of day for a decade! I pulled out my Madge May Whole Wheat Roll recipe from 1974. She was a sweet lady I knew in Priest River, Idaho who helped me learn to bake good whole wheat bread and rolls.

Fast forward through the mixing, shaping, while the home teachers were here, making a cake, in the new Bosch, turning chunk pineapple into crushed pineapple with the food processor attachment (what? that's not a fast forward?) Camille and family arrived just in time to see me putting the rolls into the oven.

"Mom, are those Rhodes dough rolls?

"Nope."

"Jessica's rolls?"

"No."

"Well?"

"I got wheat from the dungeon, ground it and made my very own rolls!"

"MOM! YOU REALLY ARE THE THE LITTLE RED HEN!!"

The other fun thing is this...

"Holy Deer-Poo, Grammie!" Doug cracks me up.



But you know... he's right!  When the snow melts  this is what my lawn looks like!

Kodiak... grrrrrr!

When we move in 6 years ago one of the things on the *TO DO* list was GET NEW CARPET... we just didn't realize that it would take us this long to get to it! You know how it is, there are always so many things you want to do and not enough cash to do them all. But that's ok!

Our old carpet was a very low loop medium brown (Gordon said it looked like it belonged in on of our chapels, you know the kind, very utilitarian... but not great to look at.)  We Gordon started looking at carpet about 6 weeks ago and finally roped me into looking as well. I loved the carpet... but not the price! Then we found a place up in American Fork that would sell us the same carpet at a significant reduction!

Do you know how much work getting new flooring is? Yeah, me too! EV-REE-THING! has to come out of the room! And, boy, do we have a lot of junk! I spent a week sorting, packing, and organizing every thing so we would be ready. Gordon had the idea of having it done on two different days; one day for each half of a level (we have a 3-level house and only got carpet on 1 & 3, we have wood floors on level 2)

Stuart brought over his room-mates on Monday evening (2/7) and they moved all of the heavy stuff: boxes and boxes of books, book cases, etc into the garage. Then we put the bulky stuff, like beds, couches, etc into the other half of the of the level.

(AND, YES, THAT IS MY CHRISTMAS QUILT ON THE FAMILY ROOM WALL... WHY DO YOU ASK?  IT STAYS UP ALL YEAR 'CUZ I LIKE IT!)

The installers pulled up the old carpet (ick... how did all that dirt get under the pad? GROSS!) Then sweep up the big pieces and I needed to go in and vacuum the floor before they could start to lay the new padding and carpet. They finished the first, and larger, half in about 5 hours (the master bedroom and hallway upstairs and the family room downstairs.)  I ended up with a major allergy attack from all that cleaning... again with the ick!

Harley was keeping a close eye on those worker-dudes... it's what he does best!

(LOOKING FROM MY WORK ROOM INTO THE HALL)

Tuesday night and Wednesday we had to move every thing from the bedrooms back onto the finished carpet. Then Thursday the worker-dudes were back to finish the job. I wish I could have finished my part as quickly as they did! Stuart and his buds came back on Friday evening and brought all of the stuff in from the garage... bless their young, strong, muscular bodies!



My favorite part of my new carpet is the shot above... I love how the carpet looms above the top stair. I joke and tell Gordon I'm going to trip on the carpet it is so thick or that I will get lost. Really, it is heavenly to walk on!

And!!! not only do I have new carpet... Gordon said he needed to treat me for *working like a mule* and bought me a new Bosch mixer!  Somehow the salves 2 weeks of hard labor ;-)

So are you wondering about the title?  Kodiak is the color of our new carpet.

Work

Early last week Maxine called me to ask if I would be willing to teach the Relief Society lesson today. I agreed and then asked what the lesson was on... hoping it wasn't another *hard* lesson. I was thrilled to find out it was on work. I read through the lesson several times during the week to familiarize myself with the material. By Thursday I was kicking myself and asking, "Why did I say yes? Dang!"... I'm to busy working! bwahahahaha!

So lasterday morning found me with a bowl of oatmeal and the need to finally put the finishing touches on my lesson. As I prayed for help on this subject I knew I needed a way to present this information in a happy way.

That is when I saw this:



It came as a complete picture... very close to what you see here (I deleted the stems... too cumbersome). I dug into my copious amounts of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper and found these happy colors (get-back Michael's... I'm ready for the competition! I never have clearance!) Since I already knew what this was supposed to look like it seemed easy to translate it to paper and from my Tole painting days I could add the fun line work... now it was mine... but the idea was given to me.

I'm always amazed at how good God is to me! But I'm not sure why I should be... He always is if I will just ask!

This was a dear lesson for me. I was taught the Eternal principle of Work by my goodly parents. They not only taught me the HOW but they taught me the WHY and the LOVE! What a wonderful blessing!

If you'd like to see the text for today's lesson you can go here.